I played 30 different solo games in April!
Hey All!
Long-time lurker, first-time poster.
Inspired by a video from Banter and Boards, I decided to undertake a 30-day solo gaming challenge for the month of April. I had some extra time at home while my dog recovered from surgery, so I aimed to knock out one game per day (and succeeded!). Here are my thoughts on these plays (and tier list).
A few overall lessons:
- Finding the time for these games and groking rules for 30 different games was a big challenge. Quick and low rules overhead was often prioritized over “I want to play this”. This certainly played a role in my rankings.
- As you can see, I play all sorts of games. I was definitely finding my preference more towards co-op games and solo modes with clear win conditions and varied challenges. Simple BYOS was not as fun to me. High bot friction was also a general deterrent.
- I generally like to expand the games I have rather than get new ones; but sometimes those additional scenarios/characters/rules make it way harder to get these games to the table (looking at you, Marvel Champions, Imperium, and Final Girl).
- I have more thoughts on these games, but tried to keep this post manageable. I logged these as I went and simplified for this post.
The Rundown:
4/1 Spirit Island: A 25-point win with Grinning Trickster Stirs Up Trouble & Wandering Voice Keens Delirium over Scotland 2. Such a fun game with variable strategies, combos, and difficulty levels for any mood. S-tier.
4/2 Reforest: A bad 76-57 loss using the Old Growth Expansion and Terrain module in 24 minutes. A simple, thinky tableau builder with so many different strategies, and an always competitive score challenge.The loss was a product of me squeezing this in after a long day. A-tier.
4/3 52 Realms: Adventures: Played 3 times in the Eternal Midnight Forest. A loss and a 46-point win with the Hunter and a 25-point win with the Alchemist in 8-13 minutes each. While I love 52-card deck games, this one often feels like there’s minimal randomness mitigation. Great for what it is, but not something I’m going to gravitate to much. C-tier.
4/4 Flip Voyage: Scored 70 points with no opponent as the Diver in 37 minutes. Another game driven by a 52-card deck that does some fun things, but will just struggle in not being as good as Fliptown in that suited areas felt a bit too specialized for me leading to just a resource management puzzle. B-tier.
4/5 Parks: Played solo with no expansions scoring 27 points in a 35-minute game. I love the theme and the bot was smooth to run but it didn’t create fun competition, adding constraints that just limited what I could do rather than letting me figure out how to outsmart it. C-tier.
4/6 Trailblazers: Played 2 solo games on Voyager difficulty (no expansions) leading to a loss with 45 points and a win with 56 points and hitting a goal; 11-12 minutes per play. A surprise with how easy it is to get this to the table and the depth of decisions and strategizing you get to make with barely any rules overhead. A-tier.
4/7 Railroad Ink: Scored 72 points in a 27-minute game with the trail dice from the Green Challenge box. I’ve played a lot of this game and it does what it’s trying to do well, but paled after Trailblazers and the BYOS was just fine. Low B-tier.
4/8 Monotheism: With some travel, I played this in 29 minutes on a plane. Another surprise with the depth of decisions you get to make and the strategy to it, but it is brutally difficult. Avoided a bunch of near losses before inevitably losing. I do like the challenge. B-tier.
4/9 Unsurmountable: I had a tight break on my trip and played this to get my game in, winning in 8 minutes. This may have been my first win in this game, but I just don’t enjoy it. I feel like you need to play a lot of this to get what the cards are capable of and it’s more than I would want to ever place this. D-tier.
4/10 Regicide: Pulled off a Bronze-tier win in 22 minutes after getting back from my trip. I love this game with the perfect blend of tactics and strategy. Its only downfall is some of the luck in a solo game -- if you don’t have a diamond, you’ll be downgrading your Victory level. A-tier.
4/11 Fliptown: Played normal mode as the Man in Black against Wyatt Earp Cowbot on normal difficulty, winning 104-50. This is the most lopsided game I’ve ever played, but even after dozens of plays of this I’m still finding new strategies. Absolutely love this game. S-tier.
4/12 Roll Camera!: Directed and produced the film Bloody Bloody Secret Letters which was “Worth Seeing”, only taking 33 minutes. This game is dripping with theme and is very tight, but its solo version was ruined for me after playing multi-player (which is far more fun). I do love the theme but solo this is on the high side of C-tier.
4/13 Cascadia: Played Scenario 5, scoring 98 points but failing to fully score 3 foxes. I haven’t played many of the scenarios and I may have been missing out! I love how you get to play the game with a clear goal and the bot cost is just moving tiles to the side every turn, but it doesn’t really excite me to play. High end of B-tier.
4/14 For Northwood!: Played a 23-minute game of this after my bigger game night, losing with 15 points in the Comedy Central scenario. This game is the gold standard for solo trick taking (and I love trick taking) and it’s so fun and easy to play anytime. Its only flaw for me is the win conditions -- I wish there was some more variability (similar to my problem with Regicide). A-tier.
4/15 Ace of Spades: Had two losses of this game (17 and 12 minutes) around Level 5 with the new updated deck. I enjoy playing this game, but it is not usually my first pick. I wish this game had some more variability to it with the bonuses you get. B-tier.
4/16 The Fellowship of the Ring: The Trick Taking Game: I borrowed this game from a friend and was looking forward to trying this solo. Played a 15-minute game of Scenario 4, which I lost. I love trick taking and heard good things about the solo here, but this was a big miss for me. It was way too much thinking overhead that didn’t leave me feeling like I was playing a great tricktaker. I like what it was trying to do, so we’ll say C-tier.
4/17 Long Shot: The Dice Game: Played one game with the Concession Stand horses and won 187-118 in 25 minutes. I love how much the bot in this game lets you just play the game, but I don’t know that I’ve ever had a close solo game. I love what it’s doing, but wish it was a bit tighter. Lower end of B-tier.
4/18 Tend: Gave my first try to the solo challenges, leading to a 54-point loss on the Bonzainator’s scenario in about 47 minutes. I love this game, but hadn’t played it in a month or 2 and not sure how much of this loss was shaking off the rust versus the challenge. But I love these sandbox combo-y games, the production, and I’m not one to shy away from a challenge. Can’t wait to try it again. S-tier.
4/19 Paladins of the West Kingdom: Played a 92 minute game and beat the bot on Normal difficulty 43-42. I wish I didn’t love this game; it’s theme is just so dry; but I love it SO much. Every game is super tight, the bot has minimal friction and lets you play the game in full, keeping the score tight. Just so so good. S-tier.
4/20 Welcome To…: Played 2 games around 15-20 mins each scoring 70 and 87 points. Some fun decisions and the game itself gets out of its way and lets you make some decisions. But the lack of a clear goal will stop this from being a top game. B-tier.
4/21 Coffee Roaster: A quick 11-minute morning game scoring 12 points roasting Panama Volcan-Candela SHB Light Roast. Some fun decisions in the game and I love the theme, but wish there was just something extra to it to put it a bit higher up. B-tier.
4/22 Cartographers: Heroes: A nice way to spend 25 minutes leading to a 14-point win (my solo low) largely from some unlucky card draws. I thought this would be higher but after the slew of X and Write games I’ve played, I don’t know that this sets itself apart. B-tier.
4/23 One Deck Galaxy: Spent 65 minutes winning as the Plumplin Scientists over the Hungry Nebula with some misplays that favored me. I feel like I should really love this game: the theme, the variability in adversaries and your race/specialty, dice rolling, events & planets -- so much to enjoy. But in the end, it is just so fiddly, messy, and has the type of friction I don’t really love. C-tier.
4/24 Pandemic: The Cure: A 30-minute win as the contingency planner and medic on normal difficulty with no expansion content. A really solid way to spend 30-minutes with intuitive rules and a nice tight challenge, despite not playing this one in a good while. Happily A-tier.
4/25 Imperium: Horizons: A 108-60 thwomping by the Bot’s Abbasid Caliphate against my Tang Dynasty on Imperator difficulty. This game used to be S-tier but I think I may just not love the Trade Routes module in solo. I also felt like there was just so much to manage that the overhead deterred from fun, as much as I do love David Turczi solo modes. B-tier.
4/26 Keep the Heroes Out!: I played 5 games of this, making it the most played game this challenge! After taking 3 losses with a Lizardfolk/Ratkin 2-handed solo combo, I pivoted to Imps and Skeleton. I also changed the scenario, playing Scenario 2 twice, Scenario 6 twice, and Scenario 11 (following the campaign). Such a delightful game: easy set-up, low rules, great artwork and theme, a campaign to work on. I thought this would be an A-tier game, but I think it’s easily S-tier.
4/27 Numbsters: A quick 7-minute loss after a long day. Good for a <10 minute pocket-sized card game. But really needs more plays than I want to give it to appreciate it. For mechanism, I’d rather play Monotheism. For a quick card game, I’d rather go to Regicide. C-tier.
4/28 52 Duels: A 27-minute win as the Trickster against the Merchant Nemesis with a few minor mix-ups. I liked this game way more than I remembered. Super tight (both in what you can achieve and eking out victory), easy to run and the rules get out of the way, and plays totally different with each character/nemesis combo. My only hit is the piles of cards can start to sprawl and get messy. Really looking forward to playing this more. A-tier.
4/29 Cerebria: An 81-minute 30-27 loss as Love & Harmony on their B-sides on the 4th difficulty level. This is one of my top solo games, as the system is so easy to run (with a cheat sheet I made for bot priority). I wish there were some better defined solo difficulty levels, but this is such an amazing game with lots of variability (and I did say I love David Turczi solo modes). S-tier.
4/30 Marvel Champions: I decided to end this challenge with my most-played solo game (although I haven't touched it in a couple years). Won as Cyclops with an old leadership build against Sabertooth on standard difficulty. This didn’t challenge me too much, but it is nice to get back into the synergies this game offers, even if the deck construction is sometimes daunting. Close to S-tier, but for me at this time, it’s A-tier.
Posted May 1, 2026, 5:47 PM UTC